Objective To explore the relationship between insulin resistance (IR) and plasma tumor necrosis factor ?(TNF ?) in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) in the elderly. Methods The levels of fasting plasma insulin (FINS) and TNF ? were determined by means of radioimmunoassay in 52 elderly patients with CHF and 36 elder healthy controls. Insulin sensitivity of CHF patients was assessed using reciprocal of the product of fasting plasma insulin and glucose (IAI). The correlation between the grades of cardiac function, left ventricular ejection fraction(LVEF) and IAI of the CHF patients and TNF ? were analyzed. Results Compared to the elder healthy controls, elder patients with CHF showed significantly higher levels of TNF ?〔(0 36?0 13) ?g/L vs (0 21?0 12) ?g/L, P

Objective To investigate the serum uric acid level in isolated systolic hypertension (ISH)in the elderly, and effect of Losartan potassium. Method Serum uric acid level were assessed spectrophotometrically using enzy matic methods in 85 ISH patients and 51 health controls. Serum uric acid level and blood pressue were compared respectively before and after the treatment of losartan potassium and Benzepril. Result Uric acid levelwas higher in patients with ISH than that in control group (P ＜ 0.01 ) . No significant difference was found between Losartan potassium and Benzepril group on the effect of lowering blood pressure. After antihypertensive treatment, uric acid level in Losartan group was significantly lower than that in Benzepril group(P ＜ 0. 01 ). Conclusion Uric acid level was marked higher in ISH in the elderly; Losartan prtassium has an additional benefit of some uricosuric effeets besides the antihypertensive effect.

Mitochondria play a central role in the regulation of cellular energy metabolism, bio-synthesis and cell death. Dysfunction of mitochondria can lead to many diseases. Mitochondrial proteomics provides important theoretical foundation for a systematic understanding of the biological functions of mitochondria, studying the mechanisms of mitochondria-related diseases, and promoting the research and development of mitochondria-targeting drugs. The methodologies, recent technology development, and characteristics and applications of mitochondrial proteomics were reviewed and the challenges and prospects were also discussed.

Objective: To explore the effects of monocrotaline (MCT) on right ventricular function and expression of cardiac canonical transient receptor potential channels (TRPC) subfamily in experimental rats.
Methods: The SD male rats were randomly divided into 2 groups:Control group, the rats were normally fed and MCT group, the rats received a single dose injection of MCT 60 mg/kg to induce myocardial hypertrophy. n=10 in each group and all animals were treated for 3 weeks. The right ventricular hemodynamics parameters and right ventricular hypertrophy index (RVHI) were measured, right ventricular myocardium tissue section was observed by HE staining, the mRNA and protein expressions of TRPC subfamily were examined by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis.
Results: Compared with Control group, MCT group had increased RVSP, RVHI, RV+dp/dtmax and decreased RV-dp/dtmax, all P<0.01. In MCT group, the right ventricular myocardial cells had the thinker ifber, deeply stained nuclei with irregular shape. Compared with Control group, the mRNA and protein expressions of right ventricular TRPC6 were elevated in MCT group, n=6 and n=4 respectively, all P<0.05.
Conclusion:Right ventricular hypertrophy could be induced by 3 weeks MCT treatment, it up-regulating the mRNA and protein expressions of TRPC6 which might be involved in the occurrence and development of cardiac hypertrophy in experimental rats.

Mitochondria play a central role in the regulation of energy metabolism and signal transduction in eukaryotic cells. Although many fluorescent labeling strategies have been developed for mitochondrial studies, the methods that enable labeling efficiency assessment at the single-mitochondrion level are still lacking. By employing the unique advantages of high sensitivity flow cytometry ( HSFCM ) in the sensitive, rapid, and quantitative multiparameter analysis of individual mitochondria, here we examined the performance of several different mitochondrial labeling strategies from the perspectives of brightness, labeling ratio, and stability. Mitochondria isolated from HeLa cells transfected with pAcGFP1-Mito plasmid upon transient or stable transfections, and mitochondria directly labeled with MitoTracker Green or SYTO 62 were analyzed by a laboratory-built three-channel HSFCM. Upon the quantitative measurement of fluorescence brightness, it was found that the fluorescence intensity of green fluorescent protein ( GFP ) in mitochondria isolated from cells with stable transfection was about 17. 7-fold higher than the transient transfection ones, and was approximately two orders of magnitude brighter than mitochondria labeled with MitoTracker Green. On the other hand, the fluorescence signal of SYTO 62 labeling decreased upon washing, indicating its rapid dissociation rate. The strong fluorescence intensity and good labeling stability make stable transfection an efficient method to label mitochondria. The experimental results demonstrates that HSFCM provides a powerful analytical tool to assess the performance of mitochondrial fluorescence labeling via high throughput single mitochondria analysis.

The relation between left atrial (LA) size and myocardial pathological changes, and clinical implications were studied in 25 patients with- rheumatic mitral stenosis. The results showed that LA size was significantly correlated with pathological severity of myocardium (P 100 ml/m2 and accompanied by moderate or severe pathological changes easily suffered from Af (P200ml/m2 and severe pathological changes. The results suggest that occurence of Af may be predicated based on the LA volume and Af cardioversion should be selectively performed to obtain better results.

AIM: To investigate the effect of miR-195-5p on ox-LDL-induced vascular endothelial cell injury and its mechanism. METHODS: The expression of miR-195-5p in HUVECs cells induced by ox-LDL was detected by RT-PCR. Cell proliferation, the expression of oxidative stress associated factors (MDA and LDH) and apoptosis were detected by CCK-8, ELISA and flow cytometry, respectively. The potential targets of miR-195-5p were determined by dual luciferase reporter assay. The expression of target protein in ox-LDL-induced HUVECs cells and the relationship between miR-195-5p and FBXW7 expression were detected by Western blotting. RESULTS: The expression of miR-195-5p in ox-LDL-induced HUVECs cells was significantly higher than that in normal HUVECs cells. Subsequently, miR-195-5p silencing in ox-LDL-induced HUVECs cells effectively promoted the proliferation of HUVECs cells, whereas suppressed the expression of oxidative stress associated factors (MDA and LDH) and apoptosis level. Luciferase reporter assay and Western blot results showed that miR-195-5p could directly target FBXW7 protein gene and negatively regulate its expression. Finally, miR-195-5p modulated the proliferation, oxidative stress and apoptosis of HUVECs cells induced by ox-LDL by regulating the expression of FBXW7. CONCLUSION: miR-195-5p is highly expressed in HUVECs cells induced by ox-LDL. In addition, miR-195-5p can aggravate ox-LDL-induced cytotoxicity, oxidative stress and apoptosis of HUVECs cells by inhibiting the expression of FBXW7.